UX: Designing For The Space Inbetween

The true impact of new technological capabilities that integrate with our lives is a blurring of the line between physical and digital experiences. We need to design for the space between-the space between touchpoints, interfaces, and channels. The space between making a flight reservation online, changing my seat via an app and then getting to the airport and only then discovering that my “approved” carry-on luggage actually doesn't fit that style of 737. We can't just think about optimizing a retail website experience when the physical store experience doesn't connect. Often the signage, prices, and even the products themselves are different.

Even companies without physical presences should think about the on- and off-ramps to their websites. As customers rely on Google and social mediato direct them to pages deep within relevant websites, we can no longer just design for people landing on our home page. For many companies' websites, traffic from those sources is greater than from direct load via a URL. Word-of-mouth references are exploding via Twitter and Facebook, and QR codes can take us from Times Square to a mobile site. Our users are coming from everywhere!

How many of you are designing for multiple devices and multiple contexts? Are you designing for the space inbetween?

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